On the role of model resolution for the prediction of ocean sound speed variability in submesoscale-rich flows

I will summarize a body of recent work performed to investigate the role that mesoscale and submesoscale circulations have on the prediction of ocean sound speed. I will use a suite of regional simulations performed at horizontal resolution varying between 500 m and 1 km, with 30 to 200 vertical levels. Regions of interest are the DeSoto Canyon in the Gulf of Mexico, where strong density gradients fuel submesoscale instabilities year around, and the Atlantis II Sea Mount in the North Atlantic, where flow-topographic interactions constrain the dynamics. The simulations partially resolve submesoscale dynamics with different degrees of realism. I will briefly introduce how eddies, fronts, salt fingering, and lee waves can affect circulation and sound propagation at different depths in the water column, and present challenges associated with their representation in ocean models.